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Mustangs trample Tigers to end slide

SNYDER — After losing four games in a row to fall near the bottom of District 4-3A, the Sweetwater boys basketball team took out its frustration with a dominant 44-27 win at Snyder on Fri-day to keep its flickering playoff hopes alive.Led by Kaleb Hoover with 22 points and Dylan Ben-nett’s 13, Sweetwater — now 2-5 in district play as well as 13-5 overall — excelled against the last-place Tigers in most areas, especially on defense. But it was competitive early in the game. Snyder — which fell to 0-7 in district — was holding a 7-4 lead when Sweetwater’s defense keyed a 19-1 run over the final 9:45 of the half. Snyder went without a field goal for over 13 minutes of game time to turn the game into a rout by the third quarter, allowing Sweetwater to build up a 27-8 lead, and was behind 30-11 entering the fourth quarter.By that point Hoover, with 14 points, had actually outscored Snyder’s entire team. Sweetwater led by as many as 22 points in the final stanza until the Tigers — who got scoring from just three players — managed to cut the lead somewhat late in the game. Snyder was held to only nine field goals an attempted just 22 shots. Sweetwater connected on 19 of 37 shots — a very healthy 51 percent — and dominated Snyder on the boards as well. Hoover hit 9 of his 13 shots, while Bennett was 6-of-10, and they combined for 16 rebounds “We played our tails off on defense,” coach Al Hunt said. “We did what we were supposed to do offensively by getting to the basket and took the shots we wanted to take, but defense and rebounding was the key.”Marquees Jenkins (five points), Rhett Torres (two) and Michael Hunt (two) also scored for Sweetwater, which goes to first-place Wylie on Tuesday before playing its home finale vs. Big Spring this Friday.